Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating and cooling cup holder capable of increasing convenience of a user due to a fast effect property and an improvement in performance and also increasing marketability since a beverage may be rapidly cooled and heated in a vehicle to be drunk.
Description of Related Art
A vehicle or the like is provided with a cup holder. This cup holder generally has only a simple holding function. However, in some vehicle models, a cup holder having a heating and cooling function has been introduced.
In general, the cup holder according to the related art is responsible for the heating and cooling simply using only heat conduction. However, sufficient heating and cooling may not be performed using only the heat conduction.
The cup holder according to the related art uses a first peltier element, but is responsible for the heating and cooling of a cup accommodated therein by performing only the heat conduction to a cup holder body through conduction.
However, in this technology, in the case in which a contact area between the cup and the cup holder is small, the heating and cooling function through the heat conduction may not be appropriately performed. That is, sizes of the cup and the cup holder do not always coincide with each other, and the cup may have a dented lower surface. Also, in case of a cup or the like made of paper having low heat conduction, there was a tendency that a heat transfer according to conduction is not substantially generated, such that a temperature of the cup coincides with an ambient temperature.
Therefore, a cup holder capable of appropriately implementing a substantial heating and cooling function by solving these problems has been demanded.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,171 B1 entitled “Device for Heating and Cooling a Beverage” has also suggested a cup holder. However, the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,171 B1 also implements the heating and cooling function of the cup holder only through conduction, such that substantial heating and cooling efficiency was significantly low.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.